Sample Shots

The following sample shots were taken with a D3x and RAW-converted via CaptureOne.

Click on a thumbnail to view the original file (opens in a separate window).

Make

NIKON CORPORATION

Model

NIKON D3X

ISO Speed

125

Focal Length

24.0mm

Aperture:

f/8.0

Exposure

1/250s

Make

NIKON CORPORATION

Model

NIKON D3X

ISO Speed

125

Focal Length

80.0mm

Aperture:

f/5.6

Exposure

1/800s

Make

NIKON CORPORATION

Model

NIKON D3X

ISO Speed

125

Focal Length

85.0mm

Aperture:

f/8.0

Exposure

1/400s

Make

NIKON CORPORATION

Model

NIKON D3X

ISO Speed

125

Focal Length

48.0mm

Aperture:

f/4.2

Exposure

1/1250s

Make

NIKON CORPORATION

Model

NIKON D3X

ISO Speed

125

Focal Length

85.0mm

Aperture:

f/7.1

Exposure

1/400s

Make

NIKON CORPORATION

Model

NIKON D3X

ISO Speed

125

Focal Length

85.0mm

Aperture:

f/8.0

Exposure

1/160s

Make

NIKON CORPORATION

Model

NIKON D3X

ISO Speed

125

Focal Length

48.0mm

Aperture:

f/8.0

Exposure

1/250s

Make

NIKON CORPORATION

Model

NIKON D3X

ISO Speed

125

Focal Length

24.0mm

Aperture:

f/8.0

Exposure

1/250s

Make

NIKON CORPORATION

Model

NIKON D3X

ISO Speed

125

Focal Length

38.0mm

Aperture:

f/5.6

Exposure

1/640s

Make

NIKON CORPORATION

Model

NIKON D3X

ISO Speed

125

Focal Length

24.0mm

Aperture:

f/8.0

Exposure

1/500s

Make

NIKON CORPORATION

Model

NIKON D3X

ISO Speed

125

Focal Length

48.0mm

Aperture:

f/8.0

Exposure

1/400s

Make

NIKON CORPORATION

Model

NIKON D3X

ISO Speed

125

Focal Length

24.0mm

Aperture:

f/8.0

Exposure

1/400s

Make

NIKON CORPORATION

Model

NIKON D3X

ISO Speed

125

Focal Length

68.0mm

Aperture:

f/4.5

Exposure

1/1250s

Make

NIKON CORPORATION

Model

NIKON D3X

ISO Speed

125

Focal Length

38.0mm

Aperture:

f/5.6

Exposure

1/500s

Make

NIKON CORPORATION

Model

NIKON D3X

ISO Speed

125

Focal Length

85.0mm

Aperture:

f/8.0

Exposure

1/640s

Make

NIKON CORPORATION

Model

NIKON D3X

ISO Speed

125

Focal Length

72.0mm

Aperture:

f/5.6

Exposure

1/640s

Make

NIKON CORPORATION

Model

NIKON D3X

ISO Speed

160

Focal Length

46.0mm

Aperture:

f/4.5

Exposure

1/400s

Make

NIKON CORPORATION

Model

NIKON D3X

ISO Speed

125

Focal Length

85.0mm

Aperture:

f/8.0

Exposure

1/500s

Make

NIKON CORPORATION

Model

NIKON D3X

ISO Speed

125

Focal Length

70.0mm

Aperture:

f/5.6

Exposure

1/640s

Make

NIKON CORPORATION

Model

NIKON D3X

ISO Speed

125

Focal Length

45.0mm

Aperture:

f/8.0

Exposure

1/320s

Make

NIKON CORPORATION

Model

NIKON D3X

ISO Speed

125

Focal Length

85.0mm

Aperture:

f/4.5

Exposure

1/800s

Make

NIKON CORPORATION

Model

NIKON D3X

ISO Speed

125

Focal Length

42.0mm

Aperture:

f/5.6

Exposure

1/640s

Verdict

The Nikon AF-S 24-85mm f/3.5-4.5G ED VR leaves us with mixed impressions. Mechanically, there's not much to complain about. The built quality is good and in line with other current consumer-grade Nikkor lenses. The optical stabilization works very well, even at short focal lengths, and thanks to a silent-wave drive the AF is silent and quite fast.

The resolution figures in the image center are very high, however the lens needs to be stopped down to achieve good to very good sharpness across the frame. At large apertures the extreme corners show significantly lower resolution than the image center, especially at wide-angle zoom settings.

CAs and vignetting are a bit on the high side. This is also true for image distortion, which is worse than what we are used to see from super-zooms with considerably larger zoom ranges. It almost seems, that with software correction available for all three issues in-camera nowadays, these properties are no longer high on the priority list during lens design.

So, in summary, the lens delivers solid performance regarding sharpness, at least when stopped down, but fails to impress regarding other image parameters. Most of the issues mentioned here can be resolved with in-camera correction (or in post processing), however from a consumer zoom carrying a price tag close to 500 EUR we expected a little more.